Spurned SEAL visits Washington

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama also renewed his vow to help the country's veterans.

"We will keep faith with our veterans – investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded warriors; supporting our military families; and giving our veterans the benefits, education and job opportunities they have earned," the president said.

Since the SEAL’s account was published Monday morning, a number of media outlets, including Stars and Stripes, have questioned why bin Laden’s killer lacked health insurance. The VA offers the option of virtually free medical care to all honorably discharged Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for the first five years after their discharge.

On Tuesday afternoon, Tommy Sowers, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, tweeted his thanks to Stars and Stripes national reporter Megan McCloskey, who wrote a blog challenging the claim that the SEAL didn’t have access to health care.

CIR has since issued a correction, expanding on the availability of health care during the five years after discharge: “The Department of Veterans Affairs offers health care during that period and not just for service-related injuries.”

According to Bronstein, the SEAL told members of Congress that he was not aware of the benefit, which does not extend to family members. Nationwide, VA documents show that nearly 681,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans discharged from the military have not sought health care from the VA. According to a study last year from the Urban Institute, 291,000 are uninsured – with neither private health insurance nor VA coverage.

Since the story ran Monday morning, CIR has received more than 200 emails from individuals offering help to the SEAL and his family. They ranged from a reader in Washington state who offered the man use of a home outside Seattle, to a job offer from a captain in the Bakersfield, Calif., fire department, to an opportunity to be part of pit teams at NASCAR races.

But bin Laden’s killer made it clear he hopes to raise awareness about the straits faced by other special operations veterans but does not want any handouts.

“I think that’s cool, but this is not about me,” he said of the many offers.

On Tuesday afternoon, Sowers, the assistant VA secretary, tweeted his willingness to help the SEAL, who still is waiting for the agency to approve his disability claim. Sowers is a former Green Beret, deployed twice to Iraq.